Die australische Sopranistin Nicole Car beim Finalkonzert der NEUEN STIMMEN 2013 in der Stadthalle Gütersloh.
Jan Voth

Press Release, , : NEUE STIMMEN 2015: 1,318 applications from around the world

Preliminary auditions for the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s international singing competition to begin in Japan

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, 171 singers have applied to audition in Berlin, 162 in Beijing, 112 in Vienna and 55 in Shanghai. The high level of interest in China shows that the affinity of the country’s young people for western cultural traditions such as opera continues to grow. Another positive development is the large number of participants from Ukraine. Despite the difficult political and economic situation there, the Bertelsmann Stiftung will be organizing auditions in Kiev, giving 56 young singers the opportunity to participate in the competition. 

"I am very pleased that opera talents from so many countries have chosen to take part this year," said Liz Mohn, president of NEUE STIMMEN and vice-chair of the Bertelsmann Stiftung Executive Board. "I am also more than a bit proud to see how the international singing competition has continued to receive such a high level of recognition for more than 25 years and how it serves as an effective bridge between peoples, religions and cultures." 

Jury members Brian Dickie, former general director of the Chicago Opera Theater, and Evamaria Wieser, director of the Young Singers Project at the Salzburg Festival and casting consultant for the Lyric Opera Chicago, will be leading the auditions at each venue to ensure uniform standards are applied when selecting participants for the final round. Dickie will also be reporting on developments at each location using his online blog. The last preliminary audition will take place in Cape Town on August 12.

The singers will be judged on technical ability, musical presentation, vocal quality, and artistic personality and presence, with each factor given equal weight. The competition’s final round will take place in Gütersloh from October 18 to 24, with Dominique Meyer, director of the Vienna State Opera, serving as chairman of the NEUE STIMMEN jury. Some 40 to 45 participants will be selected to participate in the final round. The top three female and top three male singers will share total prize money of €60,000, including two first-prize awards of €15,000. In addition, a People’s Choice Award will be given.  Singers who take part in the final round will benefit in particular from the opportunity to meet with opera house managers, festival directors and agents, and from the individual feedback they receive from the jury. 

In addition to Dominique Meyer, Brian Dickie and Evamaria Wieser, the international jury includes Gustav Kuhn, conductor and director of the Tyrolean Festival Erl and the NEUE STIMMEN competition’s artistic director. Other jury members are Francisco Araíza, Kammersänger and professor at the College of Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart;

Dietrich Henschel, baritone; Siegfried Jerusalem, Kammersänger and professor at the College of Music Nuremberg; Jürgen Kesting, music critic and author; Bernd Loebe, general director of the Frankfurt Opera; Christoph Meyer, general director of Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf/Duisburg; Nicholas Payne, director of Opera Europa, the association of European opera houses and opera festivals; and Anja Silja, Kammersängerin.

The NEUE STIMMEN competition has launched the careers of numerous young artists, including Vesselina Kasarova, René Pape, Nathalie Stutzmann, Roman Trekel, Hanno Müller-Brachmann, Melanie Diener, Dietrich Henschel, Michael Volle, Angelika Kirchschlager, Anna Samuil, Maxim Mironov, Christiane Karg and Marina Rebeka, as well as Nicole Car, winner of the 2013 competition who will make her debut in May at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin as Tatyana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.

 

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